Measurement of arrival time of particles in extensive air showers using TDC32

Arrival time of particles in an extensive air shower (EAS) is a key physical parameter to determine its direction. EAS direction is useful for studies of anisotropy and composition of cosmic rays, and search for multi-TeV γ-rays sources. Accurate timing may be used to search exotic phenomena such as production of new particles at extremely high energies available during early stages of development of EAS and also for detecting sub-relativistic hadrons in EAS. Time to digital converters (TDCs) are used to perform this task. Traditional TDCs operate in the START-STOP mode with limited dynamic range and single-hit capability. With the advent of high luminosity collider LHC, need for TDCs with large dynamic range, multi-hit capability and TRIGGERED mode of operation became necessary. A 32 channel TDC was designed for the GRAPES-3 experiment on a CAMAC platform around TDC32, an ASIC developed by micro-electronics group at CERN, Geneva. Four modules were operated in the GRAPES-3 experiment. Here, we present details of the circuit design and their performance over several years. The multi-hit feature of this device was used to study the time structure of particles in the EAS on time scale of ~1 μs. The distribution of time intervals in the multi-hit data shows an exponential profile with a time constant of ~370 ns. These delayed particles are likely to be neutrons produced in the EAS core that were recorded in the scintillator detectors following the relativistic EAS front.     

Numerical Modeling of Suspended Sediment Transport in the Gulf of Kachchh Including Kandla Creek,West Coast of India

A depth-averaged numerical model has been developed to study tidal circulation and suspended sediment transport in the Gulf of Kachchh including Kandla creek, west coast of India. The resolution of the model is taken as 750 m × 750 m, which is found to be adequate for the gulf region. However, this resolution could not produce the realistic circulation pattern and suspended sediment concentration in the Kandla creek region. There is a major seaport at Kandla which serves as the sea gate to northwest India. Therefore, a 2-D fine resolution (75 m × 75 m) model for Kandla creek has been developed and coupled with the coarser gulf model to compute the flow features in the creek region. The model dynamics and basic formulation remain the same for both the gulf model and the creek model. The models are barotropic, based on shallow water equations, and neglect horizontal diffusion and wind stress terms in the momentum equations. The models are fully nonlinear and use a semiexplicit finite difference scheme to solve mass, momentum, and advection-diffusion equations in a horizontal plane. The tide in the gulf is represented in the model by the semidiurnal M₂ constituent mainly. In this study, no fresh water discharge conditions have been considered so the results are appropriate for the dry season. Numerical experiments are carried out to study the circulation and suspended sediment concentrations in the gulf and the creek regions. The computed results are validated with the available observations.     

Microstructures of mylonites along the Karakoram Shear Zone,Tangste Valley,Pangong Mountains,Karakoram

The Karakoram Shear Zone is a northwest-southeast trending dextral ductile shear zone, which has affected the granitic and granodioritic bodies of the southern Asian Plate margin in three distinct episodes. The ductile shearing of the granitic bodies at Tangste and Darbuk has resulted in the development of mylonites with mylonitic foliation and stretching lineation. More intense deformation is noted in the Tangste granite grading up to orthomylonite, as compared to the Darbuk granite. Kinematic indicators include S-C foliation, synthetic C′ and C″ antithetic shear bands, Type A s-mantled porphyroclasts, oblique quartz foliation, micro-shears with bookshelf gliding, mineral fishes including Group 2 mica fishes, and Type 1 and 2a pull-apart microstructures, and exhibit strong dextral sense of ductile shearing towards southeast. The textural features of the minerals, especially that of quartz and feldspar, indicate temperature of mylonitisation ranging between 300 and 500°C in the upper greenschist facies, and appear to have been evolved during exhumation as a consequence of oblique strike-slip movements along the Karakoram shear zone.     

Application of meteorological and vegetation indices for evaluation of drought impact: a case study for Rajasthan, India

Drought is a serious climatic condition that affects nearly all climatic zones worldwide, with semi-arid regions being especially susceptible to drought conditions because of their low annual precipitation and sensitivity to climate changes. Drought indices such as the standardized precipitation index (SPI) using meteorological data and vegetation indices from satellite data were developed for quantifying drought conditions. Remote sensing of semi-arid vegetation can provide vegetation indices which can be used to link drought conditions when correlated with various meteorological data based drought indices. The present study was carried out for drought monitoring for three districts namely Bhilwara, Kota and Udaipur of Rajasthan state in India using SPI, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), water supply vegetation index (WSVI) and vegetation condition index (VCI) derived from the Advanced Very High resolution Radiometer (AVHRR). The SPI was computed at different time scales of 1, 2, 3, 6, 9 and 12 months using monthly rainfall data. The NDVI and WSVI were correlated to the SPI and it was observed that for the three stations, the correlation coefficient was high for different time scales. Bhilwara district having the best correlation for the 9-month time scale shows late response while Kota district having the best correlation for 1-month shows fast response. On the basis of the SPI analysis, it was found that the area was worst affected by drought in the year 2002. This was validated on the basis of NDVI, WSVI and VCI. The study clearly shows that integrated analysis of ground measured data and satellite data has a great potential in drought monitoring.